Food for thought regarding Auto Industry

[bdeutsch]

I had the opportunity to watch some of the first day activities with the Big 3 CEOs, the UAW President as well as the macro-economist.

A couple of things struck me as very telling:

1. The macro-economist, indicated that of the Big 3, only Chrysler is wage competitive with the Hondas, Toyotas, etc. of the world. One would think once this was said, that somebody would address that. The only thing mentioned in response, I think it was the GM CEO, perhaps the UAW President, was only about how much the already have reduced costs. Nothing about how they plan (Ford & GM) plan to get their costs in line to compete. So at the end of this discussion, the statement was left unchallenged.
2. When asked directly regarding the Big 3's ability to repay the loan, the macro-economist essentially gave a somewhat restrained opinion that unless something changes, he did not see the money being paid back. Again, neither side of the aisle jumped on this so the statement was left essentially unchallenged.

At least IHMO, these were two lost opportunities that might have made a difference if there had been a plan to address.

[Jamo]

Anthony...that was specifically written in response to someone else's post, and you may have taken it out of context from the way you replied. I too beleive in BK for the basturds in order to break the union contracts, change management and set the stage for either sell offs to better run companies or rebuilding at leaner levels. I have made that point numerous times here, so your quote of my post and your response has me a bit perplexed.

As to the laws...there are what they are.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Jamo

Anthony...that was specifically written in response to someone else's post, and you may have taken it out of context from the way you replied. I too beleive in BK for the basturds in order to break the union contracts, change management and set the stage for either sell offs to better run companies or rebuilding at leaner levels. I have made that point numerous times here, so your quote of my post and your response has me a bit perplexed.

As to the laws...there are what they are.

I was quoting, reiterating, agreeing, that it's not an easy solution based on the laws, practices currently in place, and there are alot of things/laws to consider in resolving this problem.

Basically, the majority of us here, including myself, are not really experts in determining the cause/resolution of the big three manufacturing dilemma we are in. As far as I'm concenrned, we're all just giving gut responses to the problem, and I'm sure there are alot of ramifications that we are unaware of. The senators/congressmen are likely less experts than us, but they are in charge.

I think what really needs to be done is to get a panel of true experts in manufacturing, that is multiple owners of larger manufacturing corporations, owners that have participated in their business since it was small, growing it to a much larger company, a panel of experts who really understand the concepts of manufacturing, financing, hiring, firing, and dealing with labor unions. They should be the ones analyzing and giving possible solutions for the big three dilemma. What you don;t want is some harvard business grad giving an "expert" opinion or any elected useless government official.

[Scott S]

Ford knows how to fix the problem...

Check out this video.

http://info.detnews.com/video/index.cfm?id=1189

Scott S

[Jamo]

Saw that somewhere before, Scott...made me cry.

[Don]

I have not seen any reports regarding the Board of Directors for Ford & GM , ( Chrysler is privately owned ? ) taking any action steps to resolve the current dilemma, including the retention of Senior Management, release public statements, etc

Not knowing whether the membership of the Boards are predominantly internal or external, but don't they have a responsibility to the stockholders ?

Lacking any comment or action, it can be interpreted that the Boards fully support the direction being taking by the CEOs

Correct or ?